


Safe in Your Arms

by russthewriter



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Anorexia, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21856750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/russthewriter/pseuds/russthewriter
Summary: When the Losers Club reunite in Derry, Maine in 2016, they band together to defeat Pennywise and discover new things about themselves.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Eddie Kaspbrak, Ben Hanscom/Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. The Reunion

Ben Hanscom had a seemingly normal life ever since he left Derry. He had become a very successful architect and lived in a beautiful, upscale New York apartment. But he would sometimes fall into bouts of depression and loneliness. Ben didn’t have very many friends in New York and they weren’t particularly good friends anyway. They would often make fun of him for being overweight, which eventually caused him to lose weight and gain muscle. Despite being (in his mind, moderately) attractive, he seemed to have trouble with romantic relationships. Ben had come to the realization that he was bisexual years ago and the accepting and inviting atmosphere of New York had really opened up his mind and helped him to accept himself. With both guys and girls, it was a struggle to form romantic relationships. Unfortunately, people seemed to like him purely for his looks rather than his personality. Ben didn’t really see any way he would get out of this reoccurring cycle of heartbreak until he got a mysterious phone call during a business meeting. 

“Hi, it’s Mike Hanlon. It, I mean…Pennywise is back. You need to come back to Derry,” Mike said, baffling Ben at first. How long has it been? Ben thought to himself, still trying to process what he was hearing. Ben hadn’t thought about the dreary, murder-stricken town of Derry, Maine for at least twenty years before Mike had called. It was always a blurry, never quite there, thought that had never manifested itself to Ben until this moment.  
“Go back to Derry?” Ben asked, a worried cadence lodging itself into his voice as he spoke. He trembled and put his phone down as not to drop it on the floor.  
“Yes,” Mike replied. “We need to meet as soon as possible,” he continued. Ben sighed, packing his things quickly and heading for his car. The drive was pretty uneventful. It was nice to get away from the cacophony of noise in the city and go to a small, tranquil (albeit creepy and mysterious) town like Derry. The closer Ben got to Derry, however, is when the memories of his teenage years flooded back to his mind. The Losers Club fell back into his mind and the memories grew stronger, more detailed, and more terrifying as he got closer to Derry. 

Once Ben finally arrived, he headed towards the Jade of the Orient restaurant and parked his car. He would finally get to see his real, true friends after all these years. Ben took a few deep breaths and headed into the restaurant. He saw Beverly and Richie walking in at the same time he was and greeted them. Neither of them recognized Ben at first until he introduced himself. The three of them hugged and Richie couldn’t help but notice how tall and muscular Ben had become since they last saw one another. Ben took an interest in Richie too, thinking that he had grown into his looks well and that he looked quite handsome.

“You look good,” Ben and Richie said simultaneously, causing both of them to start laughing and embracing each other once again. Beverly had already gone inside and tried to find the table Mike and the rest of the Losers Club were occupying. Ben and Richie headed inside, meeting the rest of the Losers Club at a large table. However, Richie noticed that Stan was nowhere to be seen, which caused a shadow of worry to be cast upon him. The six friends had fun as they caught up with each other, making small jabs at one another. They were happy until the dinner drew to a close. One question nagged in the back of the Losers’ minds: where was Stan?

“Where’s Stan?” Ben asked, a worried look growing on his face.  
“There’s no way he would come back,” Bill replied, cracking open his fortune cookie, which just read “it”. The other Losers opened their cookies and saw more cryptic one-word fortunes as they organized them. The full statement read, “Guess Stanley couldn’t cut it”, goose bumps dancing across their skin as they saw something coming out from the cookies. Strange things started coming from the fortune cookie bowl as everyone backed away from the table. Eddie also inched closer to Ben, covering his own eyes as Ben tried to protect him. The odd hallucinations faded away soon enough but the Losers were still quite shaken at what had just happened. 

“Eddie, are you okay?” Ben asked, embracing the shorter man in a hug before they walked towards the bathroom.  
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Eddie replied. Eddie went into the bathroom and washed his face while Ben went to a urinal. Suddenly, someone came into the bathroom, slamming the door open. It was Richie.  
“Are you guys okay?” Richie asked, catching himself as he began to stare at Ben’s butt.  
“Yeah,” Ben and Eddie replied simultaneously.  
“What do you think that fortune cookie message meant?” Ben inquired, washing his hands and giving a perplexed look to Eddie and Richie.  
“I don’t know,” Eddie replied worriedly. After that, the three headed outside where Beverly was talking to Stan’s wife.  
“He’s dead, he slit his wrists…” Stan’s wife started, her voice breaking.  
“in the bathtub,” Beverly finished, quickly covering her mouth as she realized what just happened. Ben caught what Beverly said as she said it, before most of the other Losers Club. How did she know that? Ben thought to himself, deciding to not say anything as to try to quell the tensions that had escalated throughout the night. 

“So you brought us back here to get killed by a psycho fucking clown?” Richie shouted, putting his head in his hands as he sighed.  
“Rich, it’s gonna be okay,” Ben reassured him, placing a loving hand on Richie’s shoulder. Thinking quickly, he thought Richie would feel better if he could stay with one of his friends.  
“Rich, you can stay with me if you want,” Ben spoke up, walking towards Richie and Eddie.  
“That would be nice,” Richie replied in a subdued voice. 

When Ben got to the hotel, he met Richie and led him to his room. Richie thought the room was worn down but being with Ben helped him with his anxiety. He embraced Ben in another hug and lay in his bed as he stripped down to his boxers.  
“Goodnight Ben,” Richie said as he drifted off. Ben couldn’t sleep yet. He was still too sad about what happened to Stan. Stan was one of the few of the Losers who really seemed to get Ben, mostly because both of them got bullied and dealt with people judging them for superficial reasons. For now, Ben just tried his hardest to fall asleep and get ready for the insanity that would occur tomorrow.


	2. Light of Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben tries to comfort the scared Richie and Eddie as he tries to ignore his burgeoning sexuality.

Ben woke up with a start, his nightmares about Stan still stirring in his mind. He saw Richie still asleep, a smile on his face. Looking at his phone, he saw that it was 9:15 AM. The Losers were supposed to meet Mike at the clubhouse by ten so they could figure out how to defeat Pennywise. Ben decided to let Richie sleep a little longer while he took a shower. Ben really hadn’t gotten much sleep so the scalding hot water helped him to wake him up. A few minutes later, as he was drying off, he heard Richie waking up. Wrapping a towel around him, he went back into the room where he saw Richie staring at him.  
“Morning Richie,” Ben greeted as he grabbed some of his clothes. Richie seemed to be caught in a trance, not really responding to what Ben was saying.  
“Rich?” Ben asked, tapping Richie on the shoulder.  
“Yeah?” Richie replied, clearly jolted by what Ben had just did.  
“We have to meet Mike in less than an hour at the clubhouse,” Ben explained, heading back to the bathroom and putting his clothes on.  
“Okay,” Richie replied, sounding more subdued and sadder than usual.  
“Are you okay?” Ben asked, putting his arm around Richie and sitting down next to him on the bed.  
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Richie replied, walking to the bathroom and washing his face. Richie just got his pants on, not bothering to put on a new shirt as he slipped his shoes on. Ben led Richie out of the hotel room and made sure to lock the door as the two left. When they arrived at the clubhouse, Mike explained the Ritual of Chud to them and that they would have to get the tokens of their past in order to defeat Pennywise. Ben shrugged while Richie asked, “what tokens are you talking about?”  
“From when we separated that summer,” Mike clarified. “We have to find these things quickly,” he continued. Richie zoned out as Mike continued explaining the ritual, a sinking feeling overtaking his eyes as he started to fall asleep. Ben noticed and caught Richie as he attentively listened to Mike’s explanation. Once Mike finished talking, the Losers Club all went down into the small, underground clubhouse they had spent many afternoons in during that 1989 summer.   
Richie was snapped out of his nostalgic cacophany of memories when Bill interjected with “what about this? Could this be Stan’s token?” Bill was holding up a light blue hair cap Stan would often wear when in the clubhouse.   
“Yeah,” Mike replied.   
“So, where would the other tokens be?” Beverly asked, nervously playing with her hair. “They would be in places you went in Derry when we were kids,” Mike explained.   
“Meet me at the hotel once you find the tokens,” Mike continued, walking towards the library while Ben and Richie convened deeper in the woods.   
“Richie, are you sure you’re okay, man?” Ben asked, cautiously putting his arm around Richie as they sat down against a tree.   
“I’m fine!” Richie shouted, obviously not convincing Ben of that fact.   
“Rich, talk to me, dude. You can tell me anything,” Ben replied, hugging him tightly as he spotted Eddie in his peripheral vision.   
“Eddie?” Ben asked, eyeing him as he walked towards the pair.   
“Ben, Richie, hi!” Eddie greeted, waving at them and sitting down on the ground.   
“Hi, Eds,” Richie replied half-heartedly, his gaze shifting towards Ben.   
“You okay, Rich?” Eddie asked softly, not wanting to pry too much.   
“Yeah, I was thinking about how good I gave it to your mom,” Richie muttered under his breath angrily. Eddie rolled his eyes, walked away from Richie and Ben, and decided to look for his token.   
“We should look for our tokens,” Ben suggested, hugging Richie briefly before the two parted ways. Richie went into town and stopped at the abandoned arcade. The times he had spent there were great for the most part, especially his many hours of playing Street Fighter. As his memory filled in more of the gaps, he remembered his encounter with a boy when he was a kid. He had been playing Street Fighter with the guy and he was pretty nice. As their game came to an end, Richie didn’t want to stop hanging out with him.   
“Do you wanna play again?” Richie asked the boy, named Connor. Connor was unfortunately the homophobic Henry Bowers’s cousin, and he flipped from friendly to hostile as Henry and his gang arrived. Quickly glancing back at Henry, Connor shouted “why are you being so weird? I’m not your fucking boyfriend!” This caught the attention of Henry, who asked “what’s going on here?”   
“I didn’t know this town was full of a bunch of fucking fairies!” Connor replied, causing Henry to approach Richie in a threatening manner. “What, are you trying to bone my little cousin?” Before Richie could even answer, Henry shouted “get the fuck out of here, faggot!”   
Richie fled the arcade quickly, trying to not cry as he walked towards his house.   
Richie snapped out of his flashback, grabbing the token (an actual arcade token this time) and walking back towards the hotel.   
Meanwhile, Ben went to the local high school and found the page of his yearbook that was only signed by Beverly. He chuckled to himself, thinking about why he kept that thing all these years. After leaving the school, he hurried to the hotel, hoping he could figure out what was ailing Richie. When Ben got back, he frantically looked around for Richie, confused when he couldn’t find him.  
“Where’s Richie?” Ben asked Bill, going upstairs to his room.   
“I don’t know, he said he was leaving,” Bill replied. Ben sighed, going into his room and closing the door. He slowly walked to the bed, taking his shirt off and looking at himself in the mirror. Ben studied his shirtless body, as more thoughts about his anorexia continued spiraling through his mind. He was finally snapped out of his destructive thoughts when he heard a scream from the nearby bathroom. It was Eddie.  
“Eddie?” Ben asked worriedly, rushing towards the bathroom and trying to see what had happened. Eddie had just stabbed the older Henry Bowers, as his own face was still bleeding profusely. Ben quickly grabbed a face rag, wet it, and held it to Eddie’s face, a wince coming from Eddie as the shock from what happened started to subside.   
“You’re gonna be okay, Eds,” Ben reassured, wrapping his other arm around Eddie and trying to stop himself from crying as he saw his friend in so much pain. As Ben withdrew from his embrace with Eddie, Eddie hesitantly pressed his lips to Ben’s. Ben was speechless, slowly inching away from Eddie in confusion rather than anger. He decided to leave for now, but before he did, he needed to make sure Eddie would be okay.   
“So, I just have to keep this rag on my face until the bleeding stops?” Eddie asked, his eyes looking for something else to focus his gaze on other than Ben.   
“Yeah, then just put a few bandages on it,” Ben explained, grabbing a few bandages from his First-Aid kit and heading back to his room where he ran into Richie.   
“Richie?” Ben asked, perplexed.   
“Did you think I was gonna leave you?” Richie asked in a playful tone, winking at Ben as they walked into their shared room.   
“No, I just wasn’t sure where you were. But something happened to Eddie,” Ben replied, an unsettling feeling growing in his stomach. He breathed and continued, “Henry Bowers, he came here and stabbed Eddie in the cheek. He’ll be okay, but he’s obviously shaken by it. Can you maybe try to cheer him up?” Ben asked, smiling at Richie expectantly. “I’ll try,” Richie replied, leaving the room and heading to the bathroom to see Eddie.


	3. The Kiss

“Eddie?” Richie asked in a soft voice as he knocked on the bathroom door.   
“Leave me alone,” Eddie replied, turning away from Richie and crossing his arms.   
“Okay,” Richie acquiesed before quickly opening the door and walking towards Eddie.  
“Asshole,” Eddie quipped as Richie sat down next to him, chuckling.   
“Are you okay?” Richie inquired.  
“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s not that big of a deal!” Eddie yelled, pointing at his cheek injury.   
“Why are you being such a dick?” Richie snapped back defensively.   
“Fuck off,” Eddie replied half-seriously/half-jokingly.   
“It seems like you wanna tell me something,” Richie said knowingly, starting to get up before Eddie grabbed his arm.   
“I do, wanna tell you something,” Eddie admitted, a blushing smile forming on his face as he got up and walked toward Richie. Richie raised an eyebrow, hoping Eddie would say that he also had feelings for him.   
“I kissed Ben!” Eddie exclaimed.  
“I love you too!” Richie shouted, a deep shame going through his body as he hoped Eddie didn’t actually hear what he said. Eddie stayed silent and Richie left the bathroom quickly in embarrassment.   
“Richie, you okay?” Ben asked.  
“No, can you stop fucking everyone, you ugly slut?” Richie shouted, his blind rage not even registering what he was saying. Ben frowned, not responding to what Richie said and just closing the door to his room. 

Ben locked the door, choosing to again critique his body as he took his shirt off. Ugly. Fat. Two words he had burned into his skin when he was in high school. Grow up! Move on, he repeated in his mind, getting angrier each time he said it. Slipping his pants off, Ben laid down on the bed and screamed “fuck!” into his pillow, which finally let the tears in his eyes fall out. This must have alerted Eddie as he knocked on the door and asked, “Ben? Are you okay? I heard some screaming”. 

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Ben replied, lifting his teary-eyed and red face from the pillow. Instead of talking to Eddie, Ben decided to take a shower, hoping that would help him clear his head. Eddie left the room perplexed while Ben stepped into the bathroom. As he slipped off his boxers, he suddenly felt someone trying to simultaneously choke him and stab him. He turned around, seeing it was Henry Bowers, who had still been bleeding from his earlier encounter with Eddie. Ben quickly grabbed the knife from him, twisted Henry’s arm, and pushed him against the bathroom window. 

“Can you just fuck off already?” Ben asked, more annoyed than scared of Henry at this point. Unfortunately, Henry had another knife and he lunged towards Ben’s waist, but Ben dodged him quickly. Ben grabbed Henry’s other knife and stabbed him in the head with one knife and in the heart with the other. Ben continued doing this until he finally saw that Henry was dead. Ben breathed heavily, dropping the knives and getting the water running for his shower. He quickly showered, trying to think about other things than his kiss with Eddie. When he got out, he heard more knocking at the door and opened it. 

“Eddie? What is it?” Ben asked, trying to not sound annoyed. Eddie couldn’t help but notice Ben’s glistening torso as he stood in a towel.   
“Did something happen in here? I heard a loud thud,” Eddie inquired, trying to avert his gaze from Ben’s body.  
“Henry Bowers, he attacked me when I was in the bathroom but I killed him,” Ben replied, trailing off as he reached the end of the sentence.   
“Are you okay?” Eddie asked, cupping Ben’s face with one of his hands.   
“I’m fine,” Ben replied.   
“I’ve been thinking about what happened earlier,” Eddie interjected, taking Ben aback at the random change of subject.  
“Me too, I thought it was nice,” Ben admitted.  
“Thanks,” Eddie replied. There was a brief silence before Ben passionately kissed Eddie, being sure to carefully remove his shirt as to not mess with his face bandages. Eddie took off his pants and underwear while Ben slipped his towel off and continued kissing Eddie. 

Eddie stopped kissing Ben and re-positioned himself onto the bed with him. The two were in such a state of ectasy that they barely noticed the door opening and Richie peering inside. Richie decided to not engage with them, saving his would be apology to Ben for later and heading downstairs where Beverly and Bill were. 

“Did you find your tokens?” Richie asked, catching both of them off guard.   
“Yeah,” Beverly and Bill replied, each showing him their tokens.   
“I think everyone has their tokens,” Bill continued before he saw a skateboard inexplicably rolled in and stopped in front of the stairs. The skateboard had a pool of blood under it and when it flipped, the bottom of it read “Won’t be there for him either?”   
“I’m not gonna let that kid die!” Bill exclaimed, quickly leaving Beverly and Richie, who were both confused by what was happening.   
“What kid is he talking about?” Richie asked.  
“Maybe that kid from the restaurant?” Beverly replied, too unsure of what was happening at the moment. Meanwhile, Ben and Eddie were too busy with each other that they didn’t know what was happening at the moment. Not wanting to mess with Eddie’s bandages, Ben positioned himself above Eddie and started kissing his way down his body until he reached Eddie’s hard cock.   
“Do you want this, Eds?” Ben asked, stopping himself.   
“Yes, God, yes,” Eddie replied excitedly as the pair continued kissing.


	4. Three's a Crowd

Richie went back upstairs and into the bathroom next to Ben’s room. He simultaneously felt himself getting angry and aroused when he heard Ben and Eddie having sex through the hopelessly thin walls. Sighing, Richie grabbed the growing bulge in his pants before unbuttoning and unzipping them, he pulled his dick out of his boxers and started stroking himself. Trying to keep quiet so Ben and Eddie wouldn’t hear him, Richie picked up the pace, gripping the shower rod and letting his pants fall further down his legs. Going even faster, Richie realized he was close to finishing so he moved his hand from the shower rod to the back of the toilet and positioned himself right above it.   
“Ben, fuck!” Richie shouted, finally releasing a small spurt of cum before sitting on the floor. As the post masturbratory bliss faded, Richie realized that Ben and Eddie likely heard his outburst and knew what he was doing. Embarrassed, he hoped Ben and Eddie could forgive him and they could all try to be friends if they couldn’t be in a relationship.   
Meanwhile, in Ben’s room, Eddie got on all fours, preparing for Ben to enter him.   
“C’mon, fuck me, Ben!” Eddie yelled mere inches from Ben’s ear.   
“Alright, I’m ready,” Ben replied, breathing heavily as he entered Eddie’s ass. Eddie slightly yelped as Ben started picking up his pace and stroking Eddie’s dick with his other hand.   
“Yeah Ben, keep going!” Eddie shouted as Ben increased his pace yet again.   
“Eds, you’re so sexy,” Ben replied, slapping Eddie’s ass. Eddie moaned with pleasure yet again before he heard someone yell “fuck!” from the other room.   
“Is that Richie?” Ben asked, briefly stopping himself despite the disgruntled cries of Eddie.   
“Doesn’t matter, just keep going!” Eddie yelled desperately.   
“Okay,” Ben agreed, starting to thrust into Eddie again. After a few minutes of thrusting, Ben came inside Eddie while Eddie came as he kept stroking himself, gasping and exclaiming as they both collapsed onto the bed. After cleaning themselves up, Ben cuddled Eddie, neither of them bothering to put their clothes back on. Eddie got up to turn the light off and Ben playfully slapped his butt. Eddie laughed before hearing a knock on the door.   
“Hey, it’s Richie!” Richie said from outside. Ben threw Eddie’s underwear to him and Eddie opened the door.   
“Hey, Rich,” Eddie greeted, leaning against the door frame and winking at Richie.   
“Eds, do you know where Ben is? I wanted to talk to him,” Richie said apolegetically.   
“He’s right here,” Eddie said, pointing at the still naked Ben laying in the bed. “I’ll give you two some time alone,” he continued, smiling at Richie as he went to the bathroom.   
Richie walked towards Ben, who was wrapped under the covers of the bed. Richie sat on the bed next to Ben, leaning towards him before he spoke.  
“Ben, I wanna say that I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I was just mad because I really like you and you’re so hot and--” Richie started, trying to not stumble over his words. Ben suddenly kissed Richie, surprising him as they both melted into the kiss. Eddie walked out of the bathroom and saw Richie and Ben kissing. He wasn’t mad at all though; he was happy that they could all be together.   
“Sorry, Eddie,” Ben said as he saw Eddie out of the corner of his eye.   
“It’s okay, Ben. I think it would be nice if we could all be together,” Eddie replied.  
“So, all three of us, together? Like a ‘throuple’?” Richie asked as he placed his hand on the side of Ben’s face.   
“Yeah,” Eddie clarified, smiling at Ben and Richie.   
“I’d like that,” Richie replied as Ben nodded in agreement. With that, Ben, Eddie, and Richie embraced each other, before a knock on the door interrupted their momentary bliss. The three of them got their clothes on before opening the door for Beverly.   
“Is everything alright?” Richie asked, yawning.   
“No, Bill said he’s gonna try to kill Pennywise himself. We have to get to the Neibolt house!” Beverly exclaimed.   
After grabbing their respective tokens for the ritual, Ben, Richie, Eddie, and Beverly left for the Neibolt house, and texted Mike to tell him to meet them there. The Losers Club was nervous but hopeful that they could defeat Pennywise once and for all.


End file.
